Housing bosses' pay goes through the roof

THE AVERAGE pay for a housing association chief executive is now £153,353. Some of them get much more; the Anchor Trust boss gets £290,000, for example. They also get big employers' pension contributions. The Places for People boss gets £263,663 plus £68,552 employers' pension contribution (Inside Housing 24/09/2010). No 'pensions affordability crisis' for them it seems!

Recently, housing minister Grant Shapps attacked their pay as "immoral". Apparently he is shocked that 52 housing association bosses are paid more than the prime minister who gets £142,353.

Of course the PM gets lots of perks and all of this millionaires' cabinet are rich enough to see their parliamentary and ministerial pay as merely icing on the cake.

It is also true that senior bankers or bosses of building firms are paid many times the pay of an association boss. For social housing tenants though - about half of whom are now housed by housing associations - these figures will seem truly obscene.

Housing associations, which have received huge amounts of public money in housing grants over the years should be taken into public ownership and put under the democratic control of workers, tenants and local communities.